Monday, September 8, 2014

Thinking that the United States has never sent men to the Moon seems absurd. To some specialists in the field, former astronauts, journalists, and a small percentage of people around the globe it is a supported, highly demonstrated and confirmed fact. Truth or not, these polemic theories are out there being debated over two decades and they have a name: MOON LANDING CONSPIRACY THEORIES.

According to these theories NASA has hoaxed substantially the audio, video and photo shootings of the landing on the Moon by Apollo Missions, using the Nevada Area 51 to shoot the images. In fact, if you watch the video I posted you will see that it is fair to say that it is indeed a very polemic and complex subject that raises a lot of questions.

Credit: SG TROOP via youtube/FOX

Another conflicting detail about the Moon landing is the smell of Moondust. In the Apollo Chronicles - The Mysterious Smell of The Moondust - astronaut Gene Cernan from the mission Apollo 17 attests that the Moon surface is soft as snow, fine as flour, rough and abrasive as sandpaper, provokes hay fever and that smells like burnt gunpowder.

If Moondust was so abrasive as they scooped back then, how come it did not ruin the suits but it made some damage on the boots? How come it smells like gunpowder if it is made of silicon dioxide glass, magnesium, iron, calcium, olivine and pyroxene and modern gunpowder is a mixture of nitrocellulose and nitroglycerin?

Curiously, back to Earth, the "samples" taken did not have the smell of gunpowder at all! According to NASA the samples taken were placed in vacuum containers that somehow got unsealed and in contact with oxygen and that actually they can't really attest how much these samples were altered by this kind of exposure. A question raises here: is it possible that highly trained personnel in a mission that costs millions of dollars be that careless about handling, preserving and bringing samples back to Earth to study? If so, NASA should review its protocols...just saying...but back to scents:

Describing the smell of the Moon ISS astronaut Don Petit states in the NASA website:"Picture yourself in a desert on Earth, what do you smell? Nothing, until it rains. The air is suddenly filled with sweet, peaty odors."

Eugene Cernan covered by Moondust - "Lunar surface" in December of 1972.

Credit: NASA

How do you find the smell of Moondust outside the Moon? In Nevada desert after the rain? Or in the new collection of fragrances developed by Chad Murawczyk and Mindy Yang from MiN New York? MOON DUST EDP is one of the 11 scents of the collection or "chapters of visceral moments/volume I" (as the couple is calling them) and inspired by the very description of astronaut Gene Cernan. Notes of flint* stone, ozone, tobacco, benzoin and black musk were cleverly mixed to give an overall mineral effect in this wicked perfume! *Yes, you remembered The Flintsones! So did I!!What MOON DUST EDP has in common with the Moon itself is not the smell of its dust, but the very Moon Landing Conspiracy Theories, in a sense that all is questionable, all is arguable AND CREATIVE. I explain: Mindy and Chad had their share of travels; they come from mixed backgrounds and cultures; they have their very personal way of seeing the world and to express their feelings and creativity in scents. They want you to open your heart and mind and have your very special way to relate to these fragrances. They tell a story at the very first whiff, but you can use your imagination and rewrite your own chapter! Actually they encourage you to do.

Moon Dust EDP by MiN New York - Scent Stories Vol. I

Photo credit: Min website

+ Q PERFUME BLOG IMPRESSIONS

MOON DUST EDP is bold, powerful, extremely sensual perfume with a profuse performance. You need to have an outstanding personality to support this one, otherwise you will be swallowed by it. So if you like intensity and well designed fragrances this fragrance is for you.

MOON DUST EDP is a black shinning Arabian stallion running free in the wild and need to be domesticated. It will sprint into your nostrils and be carefully smoothed on your skin. Once that happens, it is beautifully developed.

It also has a serious animalic facet to it that it is at the same time both mineral & salty sweet & sensual. The opening has a very unconventional mineral - wet & hot pavement-ish kind of scent, as if it rain just evaporated on a very hot pavement. I love it because it reminds me of my childhood at the beach, when after a long hot day, the rain falls, bringing up the mineral scent of the sand, pavement and the sea altogether.

It contains layers and layers of darkness with a beetroot undertone mixed with the smell of dry dirt that is very interesting. Here at the heart you will be enchanted by a strong cedar scent a bit rubbery and very unique.

The drydown is very sexy due to the black musk notes. Slightly powdery, sophisticated and also slightly sweeten by a note of benzoin.

If you tried Black Bulgari, Fire Intense by Sonoma, Lonestar Memories by Andy Tauer and even Encre Noir by Lalique or M/Mink By Byredo(all reviewed herein the past) you are ready for the MOON DUST EDP experience. In fact it would be a very interesting and complementing couple's scent experience to wear MOON DUST EDP (for him) paring with Black Bulgari (for her)!

Truth is smelling the perfume I was taken to a Bond movie scene at the beach - in Quantum of Solace - in which James Bond play by DanielCraig (my favorite Bond) comes out of the water and is seduced by actress Caterina Murino on a horse.

MOON DUST EDP of Scent Stories Vol by MiN New York takes you to a journey. If to the Moon, to a Bond movie, or any other place, it is up to you to smell and discover. I did not write my own story. My memory took me to a journey involving secret agents that started a long time ago with Black Bulgari. My evoked journey was to a beach in the Bahamas where Craig shows his well built torso and Murino shows the sensuality of her body and the curves of a stallion. The script was already written.

But let's come back to the city because most of us lead an urban life. Being more practical what I can say about the fragrance is that I feel that is more suitable for the masculine gender; for colder days and to be better explored at night (due to its mysterious and seductive aura).

You can order a sample or purchase a full bottle at MiN New York Atelier at 117 Crosby Street, Soho, NYC or online at: minnewyork.com

About the Author

Simone Shitrit is a Sao Paulo-based olfactive designer, author & editor for +Q Perfume Blog, +Q Perfume Trends & Blends Blog. She was for more than 2 years exclusive fragrance contributor for the Brazilian Beauty site Cristiana Arcangeli (The iconic entrepreneur and reference to the Brazilian Cosmetic & Perfumery Industry), fragrance evaluator and free lancer writer for the Brazilian Beauty & Cosmetics magazine Atualidade Cosmética. Exclusive Fragrance Consultant for one of the largest Brazilian news Broadcasters - BandNews. She also gives lectures and promotes events about perfumery and for perfume brands.

As a Fragrance expert and consultant always cutting edge, she was the first and only perfume blogger to be a juror of the Brazilian Perfumery & Cosmetics Awards - Atualidade Cosmética; consultant for big fashion magazines such as Marie Claire and House and Garden in Brazil; freelancer evaluator for Fragrance Houses in Brazil; and is always invited to be present in fashion, design, gourmet and perfumery events.

With a background in International Trading, Business Administration and International Marketing and Corporate Law, she has been working with multinational companies and governmental organizations. Today she is the senior marketing manager for Orphek Led Lighting Solutions.

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